My father used to tell me that my grandmother, Edith Alicia (‘Bonnie’) Ross – a promising young pianist – played the piano in the first concert broadcast live from the Wellington Town Hall on Radio New Zealand. This would have been in the late 1920s to early 1930s. Bonnie was a prefect at Nga Tawa in 1928 – the attached photo shows her in the front row, the left of the two girls.

Bonnie was offered a scholarship to further her piano studies in London, but her father – a Christian Scientist – forbade it, as women only ‘played in the parlor for entertainment’!

Are there any records of the concert, and the players from anyone? Sadly prior to 1935, live concerts were not recorded so there appears to be no record of Bonnie’s shining moment.